In a typical enterprise or organization, end-users connect to the Internet with their client devices (e.g., desktops, laptops, mobile phones, etc.) through Layer 2 edge networks that are provided and maintained by an information technology (IT) department of the enterprise/organization. If an end-user at a particular office location experiences a network connectivity problem, the end-user is often advised to contact an IT support representative that is situated at a remote location (e.g., a call center or central office) via phone or email to help troubleshoot the problem. The IT support representative generally needs certain pieces of diagnostic information regarding the end-user's client device and how that device is connected to the edge network (e.g., client MAC address, client IP address, configured DNS server(s), etc.) in order to begin the troubleshooting process. However, since this diagnostic information typically resides on the client device itself (and/or the network access device of the edge network), the remotely-located IT support representative cannot directly retrieve it.
It is possible for the end-user to independently find some or all of the required diagnostic information by looking through the network settings of his/her client device; but, in some cases, the end-user may not have the technical knowledge to perform this task. In these cases, the support representative must walk the end-user through a series of steps to find each piece of diagnostic information (e.g., open command prompt on client device, enter command ABC, provide the value shown in field XYZ, etc.), which can be a tedious, time consuming, and potentially error-prone process.